Help us bring Bike Share to LoMo!

The City of Philadelphia has proposed 100 bike share locations, 60 of which will be selected, but none of them are south of Morris Street! Join LoMo President Todd Schwartz in an email and letter-writing campaign to Andrew Stober (Andrew.Stober@phila.gov), Chief of Staff of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities to let him know we want bike share in LoMo! You can also see proposed locations and submit comments until October 20 at Philly Bike Share‘s website.

Greetings Mr. Stober:Members of the Lower Moyamensing Civic Association (LoMo) were disappointed to learn that the bike share program would not be coming to our bicycle friendly, transit oriented development friendly neighborhood in South Philadelphia. LoMo is the ideal place for the Bike Share program. We are bounded from Broad-7th and Snyder-Oregon Avenues and are fortunate to be served by two heavily utilized subway stations: Snyder and Oregon. In addition we are served by the Septa routes #4, #7, #23, #37 #47, #57, #68, #79 and G; just to name a few. LoMo is also considered a gateway to the sports complex as we are a quick 10-15 minute bike-ride to the stadiums. How fun would it be to have celebratory bike ride from the At&T Station to a bike share station in LoMo (then continue to the further destination via SEPTA)? Of course, it would help if all of our sports teams are winning but nevertheless we have an opportunity to potentially reduce traffic congestion and promote biking in Philly.Also, it is noteworthy that LoMo is less than three miles from Center City and many of the bicycle corridors run through our neighborhood. We are also fortunate to have the Fumo Family Library Branch located at Broad and Porter Streets which serves the increasing needs of the greater South Philadelphia community. In addition, we have a burgeoning constituent base originally from Asia and Latin America and one of the largest Southeast Asian populations in the United States- all rely on bicycles and SEPTA as a primary means of transportation. We also have many recent college graduates that do not own a car and use bikes/SEPTA as a primary means to get around.

And finally, on Saturday March 22, 2014, your colleague, Aaron Ritz promoted the Bike Share program to LoMo at a community meeting (he did a great job !) . Close to 30 people attended the event and enthusiastically anticipated the program to our neighborhood. Please understand our disappointment about being excluded from the program and thank you in advance for your reconsideration.